The ongoing US government shutdown has reportedly triggered an upsurge in traffic to pornographic websites and a change in the hours people view them.
Pornhub claims it's seen a 14 percent jump in late night traffic as 800,000 government workers are mandatorily furloughed due President Trump's unhappiness with not getting funding for a border wall.
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It's become the longest government shutdown in the nation's history, as lawmakers refuse to approve US$5 billion for Trump's wall and he refuses to re-open the government - leaving a great many people sitting at home with a lot of time on their hands.
"Pornhub's peak traffic period across the US is typically from 10pm to 12am. After the shutdown began, late-night traffic increased by up to 14 percent above average," Pornhub's insights team says.
"Those fluctuations are similar to other events when people tend to stay up later and sleep in when they don't have to go to work in the morning. Afternoon traffic also increased by as much a 7 percent above average at 1pm, when people would typically be at work."
Washington DC specifically saw an increase of 6.32 percent overall during the shutdown, Pornhub says, while the capital city's after-midnight time period saw a jump of 12 percent.
Pornhub's insights team also lists a series of categories of pornography that it says have increased the most during the shutdown. 'Outdoor' achieved the biggest jump with 71 percent.
That data was compiled from January 7 to January 11, with Pornhub saying those days because would be the least impacted by the holiday season.
The shutdown enters its 28th day on Friday (local time).
Newshub.
